


Redeemer in the Sky

by phrazes



Category: The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb)
Genre: Fix-It, M/M, POV Multiple, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 20:41:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3909952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phrazes/pseuds/phrazes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After years of imprisonment, Harry is released from Ravencroft. To make amends for his past wrongdoing, he becomes an agent for Oscorp's Aeroglider program, helping to arrest criminals. Lonely as before, he also hopes this new direction in his life will bring Peter back to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you're reading this fic just a few days after it's been posted, excuse my typos. ._.

Harry has been released after being imprisoned for seven years at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane. When the news reaches Peter, he has absolutely zero plans to see Harry again, not after that brutal fight at the clock tower where Gwen became collateral damage. It took a while, but he’s come to terms with the fact that the combination of the spider venom and the Osborn disease made Harry’s mental state utterly unstable. It wasn’t really him who grabbed Gwen and brought her to the top of the tower.

And Peter has always known it wasn’t wholly his friend’s fault – Gwen decided to be there at the power grid, and Peter allowed her into his life in the first place when he had the option to let her live her own life out in England. Even so, it doesn’t mean Peter owes him anything. Not even a nod of acknowledgement.

He carries on with his life. He has his own apartment now, takes photos for The Daily Bugle, tutors Gwen’s little brother once a week, works on his thesis so he can get his Master’s degree in Biophysics, and oh yeah – occasionally saves New York City from superpowered baddies. There’s no Harry involved, and it hasn’t been like that for a long time, and he’d rather it stay that way so his life’s as simple as can be. As simple as it can be for a superhero, that is.

***

A week later, he gets an e-mail from Harry, a cordial and concise message that reads, “Hey Pete. I’m sure you’ve heard that I’ve been released from prison. It’d be nice to catch up with you, but I’ll understand if you don’t want to see me. But I want you to know one thing – I’m sorry for what I did. Take care. I hope you’re well.”

Peter doesn’t reply.

***

On a night when Peter’s patrolling the Manhattan streets, he spots a man with mechanical wings flying out of a bank, carrying garbage bags that must be stuffed with money. A classic move by the Vulture. Peter adjusts his mask and shoots out his webbing. He starts swooping over the rooftops.

***

Peter had another two weeks before the cast could come off of his leg. After that, it would be a month of physical therapy because that’s what happens when a few of your bones have been shattered and your lung collapses due to being beaten up the Vulture.

It’s Peter’s most serious injury yet. He’s been at the hospital for weeks, getting regular X-rays and painkillers. At first, he treated it like a break and relaxed as much as he could through the pain, but now, weeks later, he feels trapped in this broken body of his. He keeps hearing about house fires and murderers on the news as well as the usual crooks like Kingpin and Venom, and it’s torturous to be stuck in a wheelchair, needing help to do basic things like getting on his bed.

After Aunt May takes him out to the balcony to get some fresh air, he rolls back into his room by himself. He finds a small bouquet of flowers and a get well card on the table.

A nurse comes to the door. “Oh, those are from Harry Osborn. I tried to get him to wait for you, but I guess he was in a big rush. He didn’t even have time to walk down the hall to your room here.”

“Oh, that’s okay. Thanks.”

“How do you know him? Not everyone knows a former villain.”

“Long story. Very long story…”

He doesn’t bother looking at the card.

***

During supper, Peter peers out of the window of his hospital room, wishing he could just get up and walk out there. Swing out, if he really got his way. He scoops a heaping spoonful of butterscotch pudding into his mouth.

He forgets to swallow when he hears a zooming noise coming from outside. It gets louder and louder, until two figures come whooshing by the window, complete and total blurs. Peter’s pretty sure he saw wings though, and that could only mean the Vulture. The second blur… he has a guess, but he’ll wait for the news.

An hour later, the reports come in. The broadcaster on the television says, “Now that Spider-Man’s missing in action, it looks like Harry Osborn has taken up the mantle by being one of the first to finish training in the new Aeroglider Defense program, helmed by Gayle Byrnes, Oscorp’s CEO. He was seen chasing after the Vulture throughout Manhattan at around noon this afternoon. However, the latest reports from the NYPD say the Vulture remains at large.”


	2. Chapter 2

It’s an odd and painful feeling to come out of prison and be as lonely as you were while you were in it. Sure, Harry felt the freedom and felt optimism – he had big plans for himself, how he’d help New York City and slowly undo the damage he did to it.

But there was no one to go up and hug him, happy that he was back. He stepped into his empty and noiseless penthouse the first night of his release, and looked through his old phone with a small list of contacts. One of them was Peter. He dials it, and even though he knows his number must have changed by now, he’s still struck by loneliness when a stranger answers.

It was pretty pathetic how much Harry thought about him while he was at Ravencroft. It was because he had no one else to think about, at least no one else he cared about. He went through his memories of him, scenes from when they were kids who chased each other around and found fart jokes hysterical. These were the moments that made him smile the most. No memories from his boarding school years or his life at home made him nearly as happy.

That’s why he hasn’t let go of Peter. He was the only connection he had, and in all likelihood, it was permanently severed.

Something glimmers on the night table beside his bed – a whiskey decanter. Luckily it’s empty because there are many reasons to drink – both celebratory ones (he’s out of prison) and bad ones (no one’s happy he’s out of prison).

***

“You gotta dip your right foot more! It’s all about balance, Flash. Not speed!” Harry shouts up to the ceiling.

Flash is above him, struggling to keep himself upright on the glider. He has to grab the bars attached to the ceiling so he doesn’t crash land. It makes Harry grateful to have some of his strength and coordination from his days as the Goblin, allowing him to steer a glider with ease. It was about the only thing he appreciated about his body. Otherwise, he was just a collection of dying organs.

Flash curses. “How the hell do you manage to not puke while you’re on this thing?”

“That’s why they tell you not to puke before training sessions.”

“You should have the engineers make a little pocket on these suits to store Pepto-Bismol. It’d be really helpful!”

“Consider the training as a way to strengthen your gliding skills as well as your stomach,” Harry says.

***

That night, Harry’s on call. Just minutes into his shift, the officers report a carjacking and so Harry’s riding with the wind, on the lookout for a navy Jeep. The carjacker doesn’t stand a chance – once Harry spots him, he lowers himself closer to the street, enough to have a good angle to the vehicle’s wheels. With his gun, he shoots at a tire. The car slows down, and a police cruiser manages to catch up with it.

The carjacker is arrested.

Next, Harry’s instructed to patrol one of the neighbourhoods, just to keep any criminal activity at bay. On his way there, he passes a hospital, the one he knows Peter’s staying at. He looks into the windows, half-hoping Peter’s silhouette would appear, surrounded by white light. Harry wonders what he looks like, now that he’s in his mid-twenties.

He’s wondered a lot about him. Especially if he’ll ever forgive him. Harry’s genuinely trying to be a better person, and he hopes Peter’s noticing that.

***

Harry puts an effort into being friends with Flash. His social life is on ground zero at the moment and so he has to build it back up.

Being friend with Flash is difficult though. He’s too curious about Harry’s former friendship with Peter and will forever be amazed that Harry coincidentally murdered his girlfriend in his fight with Spider-Man. “What are the chances?” Flash keeps saying.

He’s too competitive as well. He wants to be a better Aeroglider than Harry, and even wants to be better than Spider-Man. It makes him a great trainee, but not exactly a great friend.

And honestly… he just isn’t Peter. So Harry finds himself alone on weekends, wandering the streets of New York and trying his best to stay out of the bars.

Unfortunately, he wakes up one morning on his couch, feeling like he banged his head against a wall about three-hundred times. He’s in yesterday’s clothes and his breath reeks. The whiskey decanter doesn’t have one drop left in it since it’s all in his blood. His watch says it’s one o’clock and he should’ve been on duty an hour ago.

His heartbeat quickens. He’s scared of himself, of what he’ll do.

***

It’s another evening with the Vulture. He’s more determined to take Harry down, knowing Harry would always be a nuisance to him. The Vulture pummels into him so that he slams into the wall of a building. Harry strikes him across the face, then grabs hold of one of his wings. The move instantly makes the man succumb to gravity, but the second the wing is out of Harry’s grasp, he’s flying again.

Harry shoots at him, and manages to graze his hip with a bullet. He’s just too much of an unsteady target though. Fists are the way to go. He didn’t do enough of that last time, which is why he escaped. That, and the Vulture’s just a damn stealthy flyer.

Harry whirls around him and rockets himself into his back. The force is great enough to make his paralyze his wings for a moment, and so he falls onto a roof. Harry sticks to him. The collision with the ground would’ve been devastating if it weren’t for his suit absorbing most of the impact. Harry pulls out one of his pumpkin bombs and tries to set in under the neck of the Vulture’s suit, except he throws Harry off of him.

Somehow, Harry gets separated from his glider in the process. Before he gets himself up, the Vulture’s running for him, and gives him a swift kick to the head. He’s rendered dizzy and his knees buckle. Suddenly, there’s nothing under his legs at all.

His arms are being held between the Vulture’s hands, and below him, are the streets and rooftops. Before Harry predicts what he’s about to do, he drops him.

The pavement gets closer and closer, and then something cuts it from Harry’s view. With a hard thump, Harry’s landed on his glider. Draped over it, he can see the people below pointing up at him. He also sees a long piece of web coming hanging from the bottom of the glider.

“This is one risky game of Frisbee you two are playing!”

Spider-Man. Peter.

Harry clambers onto glider in the proper position. The Vulture’s covered with webs, especially along his wings. Peter’s standing on a rooftop, shooting his webbing at him. Harry zooms forward, knocking into the Vulture and then grabbing his wings again.

For the second time, they’re falling down together. They hit the rooftop, and right as Harry gets off of him, Peter webs him so he sticks to the ground. While the Vulture’s still, Harry stamps on his wings, and hears the gears and levers whir in defeat.

Just when Harry thinks he’s done for, an electric shock strikes him. Fortunately, both the glider and suit are designed to withstand it, though it still jolts Harry’s body a little. It’s not enough to take him out, yet enough to make Harry not want to touch his wings anymore.

No longer pinned to the ground, the Vulture bolts upright. Peter kicks him in the jaw, then aims his webshooters at Harry. Several threads come out of them in quick succession, and wrap around both of Harry’s hands.

“Voila! Now you can punch him without any electrocution,” Peter states.

Both Harry and Peter take the Vulture down with a few more punches and kicks. Harry delivers the final blow that knocks him unconscious, meanwhile, Peter delivers the final webbing that cocoons him neatly on the rooftop.

Harry catches his breath. “Good work, Pete,” he says. It’s a cautious tone.

“You too.”

They both stare down at the Vulture only to avoid looking at each other. That gets awkward fast, so Peter winds up saying, “So, um… How’s it going?”

“I’ve been good. What about you?”

“You know, just studying and stuff like that. I went to this new restaurant and they’ve got some amazing food there.” Peter scrapes his foot along the ground, needing to move his limbs in any way possible to temper the awkwardness. “Great meatballs. Very lean,” he adds.

Harry has to smile. “Wow, you’re still such a goober.”


End file.
